


Soon

by RabbitRunnah



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fluff, M/M, conversations about the future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-18 10:14:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28990539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RabbitRunnah/pseuds/RabbitRunnah
Summary: It’s been four weeks since Bitty moved back into the Haus for his senior year. Usually he’s adjusted to life back on campus by now. But as much as the Haus will always be home, it doesn’t quite feel like home. Not the way it used to.
Relationships: Eric "Bitty" Bittle/Jack Zimmermann
Comments: 24
Kudos: 174





	Soon

**Author's Note:**

> From the Tumblr prompt “I wish we could live together already," submitted by [atlasthemayor](https://atlasthemayor.tumblr.com). Thank you for the submission!

The opening notes of “Halo” jolt Bitty into consciousness. When he shifts to reach for his phone—he can hear it but he can’t see it—the book he’s been reading for thesis research slides from his chest to the floor. Ugh. He fell asleep while studying _again_. He has _got_ to stop doing this. 

He finally finds his phone, twisted up in his sheets, and answers quickly before Jack can hang up. The last time Bitty looked at the time, before he fell asleep, it was after midnight.

“Hey, Bits,” Jack says. “Got your text to call when I got home. Did I wake you?” 

“Hi, Sweetheart.” Bitty yawns. “I might’ve fallen asleep for a little bit. Studying, you know?”

Jack chuckles. “Well, if you’re _studying_ , don’t let me keep you,” he chirps.

“No, no!” Bitty can’t help grinning even as he feels like he should be taking offense. School just barely started, and not everybody has Jack Zimmermann’s thesis work ethic! He just needs a little time to settle in. “How’re you feeling?” he asks, changing the subject. “That hit you took in the second period looked bad.”

“Not too bad. Ribs are a little sore.” 

“Are you—”

“’m icing right now. You didn’t stay up just to check up on me, did you?”

“No! Well, a little, maybe. I always want to talk about your game. But I wanted to talk when you got home because I can’t find my green button down shirt. Did I leave it?”

“Let me check.” Bitty hears Jack grunt as he gets up, then the sound of drawers opening and closing until Jack confirms, yes, the shirt in question is there. “Also, two pairs of shorts, that sweatshirt of mine you like, and your fuzzy socks.”

“Well, darn it all.” Bitty sighs. “I was gonna wear that shirt to my thesis meeting with Professor Atley this week. I thought it was in the laundry.”

“I can iron it,” Jack suggests.

“I appreciate that, Sweetpea, but I still won’t be able to come pick it up before my meeting on Wednesday. And before you even suggest it, don’t you dare bring it over. You have too much goin’ on yourself to spend that much time driving back and forth. I’ll wear something else.”

“What if I want to?” Jack asks petulantly. “I miss you.”

“I miss you too,” Bitty whispers, rolling onto his side. He hugs Señor Bun to his chest, wishing he were hugging Jack instead. It’s been four weeks since he moved back into the Haus for his senior year. Usually he’s adjusted to life back on campus by now. But as much as the Haus will always be home—for him _and_ Jack—it doesn’t quite feel like home. Not the way it used to. 

Bitty suspects it’s because the thing that defines “home” for him now isn’t a physical location, but a person. Home is wherever Jack is, and Jack is in Providence right now. 

The summer was whirlwind; things settled down a bit after everything with the Cup and coming out, Bitty and Jack had even been able to spend a week in Montreal with Jack’s parents, but things had never quite returned to the level of normalcy they’d known before. Providence wasn’t the biggest town, and the Falconers were its biggest celebrities. Bitty and Jack didn’t have to hide their relationship anymore, but simple trips to the grocery store or to pick up takeout were likely to result in encounters with fans requesting selfies. Bitty even got recognized when he was alone, a fact that had alarmed Jack until Bitty reassured him that everybody who’d approached him had been polite.

But while the parades and the interviews were exciting, the best thing about spending the whole summer with Jack had been all of the little moments—waking up early to run, cooking dinner together, strategizing for their upcoming seasons. It was being able to spend more than two days together at a time. It was going on public dates! The could do that now. When they walked into a room together, everybody knew they were _together_. A year ago Bitty couldn’t even imagine being out to their friends and now they were going to events as a couple and hosting parties at Jack’s place. 

_Their_ place, Bitty corrects himself. That’s what Jack had called it, on the phone with his parents one time. And by summer’s end, Bitty had begun to think of it as their place as well. 

“I wish we could just live together already,” Jack says matter-of-factly, and Bitty hears himself gasp. “Bits?” Jack asks.

Bitty thinks maybe he’s passed out, because his head has that feeling he used to get right before going down on the ice and he can hear his heart beating in his ears. “I— You want—” he babbles, not quite able to come up with the words. “We can’t,” he finally finishes sadly, because as much as he wants to, he can’t. Even if he could swing the commute, he’s the captain now. He needs to be here for his boys. With their respective hockey seasons starting up they’d hardly see each other if they lived together anyway.

It’s getting harder and harder to live with one foot here and one foot in Providence, but Bitty really does love Samwell. He’s not ready to leave this place quite yet.

“I know, bud,” Jack says, and Bitty can hear his disappointment, the resigned sigh that escapes. “Not now. But after you graduate. I mean, if you want to.”

Bitty wants to. Jack knows he wants to, and he knows Jack wants him to. They’ve talked, in not so many words, about what Bitty will do after he graduates. But they’ve never _talked_ about it talked about it.

“I want to,” Bitty says, wishing they were having this conversation in person instead of over the phone when they should both be asleep. “I mean, that’s the next step, right? Moving in together?”

“You’ve basically already moved in,” Jack says. “Every time I open the pantry I see five different kinds of flour.”

“Jack Zimmermann, you leave my flours out of this,” Bitty scolds fondly. 

“But you will, right?” Jack asks, like _he’s_ the one who needs reassurance. “After graduation?” 

“Honey, I can’t wait to move in with you.”

“It’s a big step.”

“Seems pretty small, compared to everything that happened this summer.”

“That’s true,” Jack allows. 

“May’s not so far away. It’ll be here soon enough.”

“You have to finish your thesis first,” Jack reminds him.

“Oh, hush. I’ll do that soon enough, too.” Bitty doesn’t want to think about all the work he has to do between now and then, but it’s easier when he thinks about the reward at the end of it.

“Right, _soon_ ,” Jack chirps.

“Soon,” Bitty giggles, aware they’re talking about two very different things.

_Soon_. It becomes their thing, the word they repeat to each other when things get hard. They whisper it to each other when Jack returns to their empty condo after a loss and after Bitty's had another frustrating conversation with his mother. It’s a reassurance, a promise. 

_Soon_.

Eventually, they won’t have to say it anymore. 


End file.
